Retiring GM Design Chief Ed Welburn Talks Of His Greatest Achievments

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General Motors Vice President of Global Design, Ed Welburn, will officially leave his post today, July 1, 2016. Before he does, Autocar took a moment to sit down with the 44-year design veteran to discuss his greatest achievements during his tenure.

Before he delves into those moments, though, he discusses his influences, with Bill Mitchell (former GM design chief) as a major one.

“He was a huge inspiration for me,” Welburn said.

When it comes to his favorite design, he stated any generation of the Corvette was a pleasure to work on from a design standpoint.

“I love them all. But any Corvette, really. That’s a car any designer dreams of doing. When we started on the C7, I opened it up to every one of my designers all over the world. We had 1000s of sketches in. They did their day jobs and worked on the Corvette at night.”

But, veering slightly, he stated his greatest achievement has been bringing engineering and design into one cohesive balance.

“More than any single vehicle, the challenge of bringing all GM design under a global organisation. Getting the right balance between design and engineering was very, very important to me. And the design quality of our cars has improved.”